A Review of Child Sex Trafficking Instruments

Abstract

ABSTRACT Child sex trafficking (CST) has continued to exist in plain sight and often goes unidentified or misidentified in mental health settings. Often generalized as human trafficking, official statistics of children who fall victim of sex trafficking remains unknown and understudied. With social platforms becoming more available to youth, children are increasingly vulnerable to CST and are unaware of their exposure to victimization. Counselors working with children and adolescents are in a unique position to prevent and disrupt CST if detected in the counseling relationship, but the lack of CST assessment tools hinders an accurate assessment of CST. Therefore, the authors reviewed existing published screening or identification tools for CST available and applicable for mental health and school settings. At the completion of an expansive search of tools, the authors excluded results that did not meet the strict criteria. This paper reviews the four remaining instruments and presents information on their scope, reliability, validity, strengths, limitations, and source. The authors also discuss considerations for each instrument in clinical practice, providing a resource for counselors seeking a CST assessment tool that best fits their population and setting.